A Rainha Virgem

With an exceptionally good cast headed by Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger, Deborah Kerr and Charles Laughton, costumes by Walter Plunkett, music by Miklos Rozsa and all the technical wizardry of MGM's vast resources, YOUNG BESS is the kind of historical romance that comes to life on the screen with a good deal of vitality. Jean Simmons and Charles Laughton have the most interesting roles and play them brilliantly, particularly Laughton who is once again portraying Henry VIII, the shrewd monarch who disposed of the women in his life by putting them to the block.

The screenplay is gracefully written and although it is leisurely paced, it never lets up interest in examining the relationships between Elizabeth I (young Bess) and others at court. Historical purists will object to whatever liberties the novel took to tell this story of court intrigue, but they will be impressed by the attention paid to historical detail and the meticulous settings and costumes. The score by Miklos Rozsa is not obtrusive and yet it underlines the deep emotions portrayed by Simmons, Granger and Laughton. Deborah Kerr has a rather colorless and almost minor role as Catherine Parr and is unable to do much with it although she and Simmons photograph beautifully in color.

Easy on the eyes and a very entertaining saga of a bloody chapter in England's history.

This is an entertaining movie and not a documentary. So, why not show "how it could have happened". This is what makes history interesting and exciting. The story is very well written, the actors are superb. And there is this sparkling chemistry between Jean Simmons, Stewart Granger and Deborah Kerr I miss so much in modern movies. This is GOOD OLD HOLLYWOOD (even it is mostly a british movie). I hope that in the near future somebody produces a good DVD!! This movie is one of my all time favorites!!

Maybe not quite how it actually happened, but this was Hollywood, remember. Jean Simmons plays the Princess Elizabeth brought up in rags and riches depending on the whim of her father Henry VIII (rather rumbustiously played by Charles Laughton). Meantime Thomas Seymour (a handsome, swashbuckling rogue played by Stewart Granger) is marrying Henry's widow Catherine Parr (Deborah Kerr) and so we have our menage-a-trois. History is fact about the marriage; much less so about the "love affair" between Elizabeth and Seymour. This film follows her coming-of-age as she navigates the political intrigues after her father's death. It's is colourful and engaging - her two servants add quite a lot too. It's entertainment though, nothing too educational.

The tale is told in flashback by her former governess Catherine Ashley (Kay Walsh), just before Bess' Coronation ceremony. Film follows Bess from birth to her falling in love with another woman's husband through Court politics and treachery.

Charles Laughton is good, if somewhat hammy, as King Henry VIII. His deathbed scene takes forever.

Deborah Kerr is OK as the rather frail Katharine Parr, sixth wife of Henry VIII; she looks too healthy and pretty to be ill. Apparently, she's afflicted with a dread disease that leaves her looking lovely, with perfect make-up, not a hair out of place and in soft focus, while it kills. Actually, Parr died in childbirth after becoming immediately pregnant with Thomas Seymour's child after her marriage, while her four year marriage to Henry produced no offspring. This rather puts to bed (pardon the saying) Henry's affirmation that Henry was virile and sexually active up to his death. But I digress. Stewart Granger's Thomas Seymour is appropriately heroic and apparently gifted with second sight. It's too bad he wasn't gifted with two heads.

Simmons is very good in the title role. Her voice has the commanding tones of one accustomed to being obeyed, and she convincingly ages from around ten to age 25. She is the best part of the film.

Director George Sidney uses a subtle and effective trick to get the viewer on Simmons' side. In her scenes, the furniture is immense (in one scene, she sits in a chair that is twice her size), suggesting that Bess is dwarfed by the events taking place around her.

The film received well deserved Oscar nominations for Best Art Direction and Costumes. "Young Bess" is a good showcase for Simmons' acting talents.

Its historical inaccuracies aside (including its scrubbed and polished depiction of a far less sanitary time, even, most probably, amidst the pomp and pageantry of the royal court), this costume romance is typical of the very carefully produced and handsomely mounted style of M-G-M in the waning days of its preeminence among the major Hollywood studios. Its well-chosen cast performs most satisfactorily under George Sidney's assured direction and the artistic and technical credits are impeccable, notably the art direction and the almost absurdly luxurious costuming. This film was nominated in the color categories for those two contributions and, most unjustly in my opinion, lost out to Twentieth's first CinemaScope blockbuster, "The Robe," in both cases. The prolific Miklos Rozsa provides one of his more sprightly scores, deftly enhancing the script's focus on the romantic entanglements of the principals. Still, enough attention is paid to the great peril of being close to the apogee of power in England at the time. Throughout a sense of dread pervades the audience's hope that Young Bess might actually survive to realize her dream of a love fulfilled.